Cup-holders have come to be considered an essential feature in nearly every new vehicle since the 1990s. Multiple cup-holders are now incorporated into virtually every passenger vehicle, providing beverage storage for both front and back seat passengers. Older children and adults can generally reach the vehicle's built in cup-holders easily while secured using the standard seat belt arrangement, however, a smaller child securely strapped into a child seat is significantly limited in his or her range of reach. With most U.S. states requiring infants, toddlers, and children under 60-65 pounds to be strapped into a safety or booster seat secured on the rear seat of the vehicle, it can be a challenge for parents and/or caretakers to attend to the child's needs while driving or sitting in the front passenger seat. Reaching back to hand the child a drink or snack is awkward, sometimes leading to a strained neck or shoulder, and can distract the driver, potentially causing accidents. A relatively recent innovation to child safety seats has been the inclusion of cup-holders in the safety seats. Cup-holders are either built into (integral with) the arm of child seat, or aftermarket holders are available for attachment to the arm or side of the seat, thus providing the child with ready access to a bottle, sippy cup, or other beverage container.
While access to a beverage container is helpful for a child who is being picked up after activity, or during a road trip, a beverage alone does not always solve a parent's need to keep the child comfortable, calm and contented during a lengthy car ride. One of the frequent causes of a child's “meltdown” is hunger and low blood sugar. This, again, presents a challenge to the parent of handing the child appropriate snacks while driving or seated in the front passenger seat. A common approach to this problem is to give the child a container of small finger snacks, such as CHEERIOS®, raisins, or apple slices before beginning the drive. However, since the child must hold onto the container, it can be dropped and spilled if the child becomes distracted or wants to pick up something else. Busy parents often end up deferring the clean-up of such messes, leading to a disgusting build-up of layers of food residue in the vehicle.
A number of solutions have been proposed to facilitate access to food items through the use of a tray/cup-holder combination that extends the capacity and utility of a built-in cup-holder of a vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,233 of Thomas discloses a combination tray that transforms an ordinary cup-holder into a multi-cavity tray for conveniently receiving a cup and multiple food items of different sizes. This design is particularly geared toward retaining the types of food purchased from a fast-food drive-through. A similar assembly is described by Hudson in U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,990, in which a pair of flat trays for retaining food or personal items extend radially away from a central cylinder that can be inserted into the existing cup-holder. Numerous similar approaches have been disclosed in the prior art. An important convenience of such devices is that they are intended to remain in the vehicle, retained within the supporting cup-holder. This desire for convenience follows whether the cup-holder is built into the vehicle itself, or it is the cup-holder in a child safety or booster seat, since the safety seat is often left in the vehicle. Most users do not want to have to remember to remove the cup-holder tray each time it has been used with food in order to ensure that it is clean and ready for use for their next trip. As a result, the tray gradually becomes coated with food residue (crumbs, grease, stickiness, etc.) making it unsanitary and unappetizing. Accordingly, the need remains for a system and method for providing convenient clean and safe access to both beverage and food while in a vehicle. The present invention is directed to such a system and method.